If you have limited space and several people are planning on spending the night at your place, you might consider renting a few hotel rooms. Or, you might get yourself an early holiday gift and invest in a couple of futons that will last for many holiday seasons to come.

Compared with other contemporary furniture designs, futons are an affordable furniture option. You can buy for about $200 a metal frame and standard mattress. Many of the less expensive futon mattresses come in a standard white or black color. To jazz them up, there is a wealth of low cost covers available in different colors, shades and prints. The covers are easy to install. Usually, they have a 3-sided zipper. You place the mattress inside the cover, zip it up, and you have created a futon design that matches your decor. Because they zip over the futon mattress, your cover will not slide off of the futon. Most futon covers are machine washable so you can use them over and over again. Because futon covers are available in so many solid colors or print designs, you can easily mix or match or futon covers to fit any interior decorating scheme. Add a few colorful throw pillows and you have created a good looking, yet versatile piece of furniture.

Unless you are getting a high-end futon design with a log or wicker frame, the metal futons do not take up a lot of room. You can tuck them into an alcove, maybe at the end of a hall, or in an empty corner of the living room. You can even put one in your home office without losing a lot of office space. When it is time for your house guests to go to bed, simply flip the futons out into comfortable double, queen or king-sized beds. By night they are comfortable to sleep on and by day, are easily folded back into futon sofas that do not take up a lot of room.

When your guests go back home, you have useful furniture for your everyday life. And if you have to host next year's festivities, you'll be running around shopping, cleaning and cooking - but you won't need to worry about where your guests will sleep.